City police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said an internal investigation showed that Officer Alexandra Cameron was well within department policy when she shot at the woman, who was throwing knives and a meat cleaver at city officers who’d come to calm her down.

Throwing meat clevers at the poe-leeeeeece is grounds for getting shot in my book. No question. But like most things in life, there's conditions:

The shot was not a particularly accurate one. In fact, Bledsoe said police don’t know if the bullet struck the woman or not. The woman had an abrasion that could have come from being grazed by a bullet or it could have been caused by something else.

That is part of what is unsettling. I can't tell you for a fact that I would be an accurate shot under the same circumstances, but it seems the cop had no idea about the general direction that she fired her issued weapon. It "went off" so to speak. If you have the soundness of mind to draw your weapon in response to a threat, than you should have the soundness of mind to know if your weapon was pointed at the threat's face or the townhouse two blocks down. Then there's this:

Police initially fired “less-lethal” pellets that release pepper spray in an attempt to subdue the woman. The spray appeared to have no effect, and the shot was fired as she kept coming at the officers while throwing the weapons.

You know, all this "less lethal" crap that you see on Spike TV and S.W.A.T. Magazine seems to me to be. . . . .well. . . .crap. Yes, there's the sanctity of human life and all that jazz, but something tells me that when you shoot a woman who's off her meds with shit designed to burn her eyes and skin, you're not helping the situation any, but in fact making an otherwise crazy person turn into a violent, deadly threat. This video clip comes to mind when I think about those retarded pepper balls ***Warning, language***:

Policing used to be considered serious business, so why is it these days that departments are buying junk like paintball guns filled with pepper? Tasers are close to lethal, and from what I've seen have been pretty effective. Same with shotgun shells loaded with bean bags. But pepper balls? Come on! Might as well be loaded with Nipple Twisters and Indian Rashes.

In a routine police investigation of the truck, a bomb-sniffing dog alerted while next to the truck, Collins reported, so Independence Avenue was closed from Fourth Street to Seventh Street while the FBI investigated. Part of the Johnson Building was evacuated.

Ok, so a U-Haul truck is parked next to the Department of Education, and the cops do an investigation? Alright, Force Protection being what it is, the truck may have been parked there for some time, and someone thought it should be checked out. I can see that. But what exactly did the dog "alert" to? Some drycleaned clothes? Did it smell gun oil, solvents, powder residue on the "small handgun?" Can police dogs pick up the smell of Hoppe's #9 from the outside of a car? Interesting, none the less.

***ETA: Defensive Carry forums has a thread on this very thing, and the best I can gather out of it is "maybe." Some commenters who handle dogs say yes, and some say no. The glaring question if the dogs can sniff out guns is why don't they alert to every cop with a gun? It's not like the dog hangs out with every cop it may encounter, and is trained to not flip out on the flaky Fed, or the new Deputy. I think it's voodoo.

After the truck got stuck, Sillitoe said, one of the men took a bucket loader--without permission--from a nearby land development site about a mile away. He said the owner is a distant relative of one of the men and declined to press charges. On its journey down to the river, the 40,000-pound Caterpillar 963 loader took out about a dozen trees, carving some deep ruts along the way. Its tanklike tracks were imprinted along a narrow path winding through the woods.

It gets way worse from there, but at least they got their truck back! Backwoods people sure do have a way of making things right! Be sure to check out the slideshow from the incident to get an idea of what happens when you mix lots of booze with too few brain cells.

Monday, March 28, 2011

I got some trigger time in this weekend, in between nap time and other obligations. A paramount achievement for me though was the creation of a solid shooting bench, so I have no more reason to bitch about not having a good rest:

The range is 102 yards according to my range finder, and you can see that I'm shooting into a big hill in the distance. Twenty five years we've been shooting into that hill, usually through this shed:

. . . and we've never had an issue with anybody. Times are changing though, as the hippies are streaming into my county like crazy, and apparently they are deeply unsettled by the sound of my AR belching 208 grain AMAXs.

I had just clicked off two well aimed rounds, and was prepared to send another, my finger already pressing the trigger against the sear, when I saw motion out of the corner of my eye towards the driveway. I could see a Sheriff's Deputy standing by the edge of the house with his cruiser in the background. I have no intentions of getting shot by an investigating Deputy while enjoying my hobby, so I picked my hands up off the gun and the cop smiled and nodded his head. I walked up to talk to him and he introduced himself by first and last name, and shook my hand. Obvious on his uniform was a pin that identified Officer Friendly as having joined this particular department in 1998, making him a salty veteran that is used to call-outs for hick gunfire. He chitchatted with us for fifteen minutes or so about stuff in general, and was then on his way to answer a call where the local savages were acting in an unsophisticated manner. He did note that the hill that we shoot into is now owned by an organization that would probably love to sue us for one thing or another, and that we should build a solid backstop on our side of the fence.

That's the sort of interaction with law enforcement that people should always expect. Officer Friendly who doesn't overreact to a peaceful situation. He has a sworn duty to respond to calls, and I would hope that someone like him would respond to investigate my household if he got a call about gunfire. I'm glad though that everything turned out well. My shooting on the other hand needs a bit of work. Either me or my gun is not consistent, and I need to find out quick where the problem is.

Friday, March 25, 2011

There's been a moratorium in my office on the wearing of pants that have cargo pockets, which means that 5.11 brand pants are out. I've been told that the new policy that I have yet to receive will outline the use of slacks, polo shirts, coat and tie, and general "business casual" attire as the authorized duds of the day. If you are offended by strong language, than you may want to click somewhere else, because I just have to say: Fuck that!

I've been wearing slacks now for almost three weeks, and I can't tell you how much I miss my 5.11s. If you are like me and carry many useful items to help you through the journey of life, than you probably notice that slacks only enable you to comfortably carry a small tube of BENGAY and Paw Paw's mini stockman, as slacks were designed like 6,000 years ago by crusty old codgers who fathered neanderthals.

Overall I am not a fan of Western style dress, and loath how little it has changed over the centuries. To me, the "white collar" folks are the ones plummeting at speed into natural selection, as nobody there seems to give a shit about utility anymore. It's gotta be the engineers that are doing it; I bitch about how they are ruining the world all the time, and clothing designers are engineers of sorts. Where is the utility in having two wimpy little pockets in the front of your britches, and two tiny pockets in the back that barely hold a credit card? What the fuck do I do with my gigantic cellphone? I literally carry it in my hand these days, because if I stick it in my pocket with my Fenix flashlight, thumb drive, pocket change, pocket knife, it will be scratched to hell and back before the day it over. I have gotten into the habit of dropping it into the single pocket on my "professionals shirt," which means that every time I bend over to pick something up, my phone goes clattering to the ground. 5.11 pants have these neat little pieces of rectangular fabric sewn onto sides of the legs that are crazy useful for holding things like cell phones. The back pockets are not only fully capable of holding a man's wallet, but I have not failed to notice that I can conceal a government sized 1911 in there with no problem. That right there tells me that mankind has made a huge advancement that should be taken seriously. Somewhere along the line though some old fuckers are still holding tight to the pant design that their Great Grandpappy loved back before we had wonderful things like cars and airplanes, and the excuse offered for not allowing modern advancements to be worn in the workplace is that they do not look "professional."

Slacks:

Professional.

5.11s:

Not professional.

Notice the rectangular pieces of fabric sewn to the legs? That's uneccessary, icky, and thus is only worn by scumbags. For a man to look professional, he must wear slacks, a button up shirt, and a neck tie. Because nothing shouts "I'm a motherfucking Professional" quite like a piece of flamboyantly colored fabric strung around your neck. Totally neccessary, a necktie is. Notice how professional this guy looks:

He has that fabric around his neck. Professional.

This guy? Not so much:

See, he has all of that uneccessary stuff, called "pockets" all over his trousers and shit. Having a place to hold all of your things is uneccessary and looks tacky. To be a real man, he needs to have the fabric tied tight around his neck, and have an uninsulated jacket that makes his shoulders look square, because the Lord forgot to make him that way, look:

Doesn't he look sharp? No, really, doesn't he look like he was just pulled out of a pencil sharpener?

Mankind built this thing and used it to send people to the moon, have built this thing to find and cut out tumors in people's heads, and yet still tie brightly colored napkins around our necks and hope it doesn't get hung the fuck up in the paper shredder, killing our stupid asses dead. They're a safety hazard for sure, and serve no purpose at all. And those ridiculous and uncomfortable jackets? What purpose do they serve? Are they any better than my TAD Gear Stealth Hoodie? Will they hold a sippy cup? Will they hold anything? If you have ton of kids like I do, you may find it helpful to know that you can fit two (2) sippy cups in one (1) cargo pocket on the 5.11 pants. Several diapers, or a small pack of baby wipes, or a paperback book, or a technical manual will fit in one of those pockets as well, making them very practical and utilitarian. But alas, it's not about being able to have things on your person to accomplish things like your job, it's about looking Professional:

Man, those shoulders sure do look sharp! By my estimation, he would be qualified to wear that outstanding outfit to my work and be counted amongst the Professional alumni here. This guy would too:
But not this guy:

Monday, March 21, 2011

Being the knife dork that I am, I tend to collect them like a kid collects Pokemon cards or those little plastic skateboards. Every one has its own individual use, and these days I favor tough budget-friendly knives that fill several roles.

Not everyone needs a high end knife. I think highly of super steels for super people who do super things for a living, like getting stabby with bad guys in unhospitable places where one may not have the luxury or time to touch up the blade to a hair popping edge. I have knives like these, with D2 and S30V steel, sitting in my gun safe. I still carry them every now and again, and they can do the simple stuff too, but they are a pain in the ass to sharpen. For the mundane tasks that I typically ask a knife to do, I chose solid quality knives with good "working steel" (my term) that can maintain a nasty edge for awhile, but doesn't take a lot of time or effort to sharpen, and doesn't cost over $100.

This weekend I had the good fortune to pick up a 1st generation Cold Steel Recon 1, since like a dumb ass I had lost the same knife this past winter at Bass Pro Shops, and they don't make this generation anymore. It was the last one the man had for sale at the local funshow, and I had to have it. My first Recon 1 sold for about $65, and this one I got for $79. That's still a steal.

This knife has rode in my pocket for years, and I trust my life to it. Years ago I talked my brother in law into the Recon 1 since I was no stranger to Cold Steel products, and knew that they could take a beating. I was impressed with it enough to buy one for myself after witnessing said brother in law using it to dig with, often stabbing it into the dirt to hook leads to and use as a ground. After several months of unspeakable abuse, he would bring it to me to clean up and put a new edge on, and it always did. He gave that knife to his nephew with reluctance, but I know where he can find one more just like it if I don't get to it first.

The other knife that is a recent purchase is a CRKT M21-04. I have a history with this one as well. The first one I bought my dad fell in love with, so I gave it to him. I got another one brand new, and it was taken from me in the famous BWI Airport incident on my way to Iraq. My third chance at buying this knife yielded the M21-02, which is the smaller version of the knife. I had bought this same one for a close friend years ago, and he lost it. I found out shortly after I got this one in the mail, and it made his day when I gave it to him. Now I have another M21-04, and I will take better care of it.

Both of these knives have 4" blades made of AUS8. Some folks bash this steel because you don't find it in $500 Strider knives, but I find that it's a great compromise between high end stainless and carbon steel. It will rust a little given enough time, but not like 1095. I don't mind the rust that much because I can wipe a bit of motor oil on the blade to keep it in shape. This can pose a problem if you decide to use your cutting tool to hack your childs McNuggets into smaller pieces, since society tends to frown upon children eating oil tained chicken, so I like to keep the teflon coated blade of the Recon 1 in my pocket most of the time.

Both CRKT and Cold Steel make high quality knives that will take an edge and take lots of abuse, but may lack some of the fit and finish that knives like Benchmade, Emerson, and Protech are known for. That fit and finish make up the last 15% of knife's character, and to get it will cost you an additional 2 - 3 times what the two above knives will cost you. I've never been hartbroke to lose a budget knife, either because I broke it doing something I wasn't supposed to, or because I had to toss it in the trash, like the SOG Trident that I forgot to place in my check-on luggage in a foreign country that I won't name here. Had that been my Rukus, I would have cried.

Hopefully this post gives my several readers a look at lesser folders that will last a lifetime doing tough tasks, but not break your wallet.

Calderon's office on Saturday said U.S.-Mexico relations remained solid despite Pascual's resignation and the two nations would continue working together to deepen their relationship "as neighbors and friends."

But the alliance has recently been soured by the public dispute between Calderon and Pascual and Washington's failure to stop weapons smuggling into Mexico.

"Clever girl" - Muldoon, Jurassic Park

So now we have the ATF Project Gunrunner scandal -- in which federal agents were ordered to basically facilitate the smuggling of weapons into Mexico -- being sold as "Washington's failure to stop weapons smuggling." B.E.A.U.Tiful wordsmithing! I would have never thought to put it like that.

The title of this post is often heard on ARFCOM, and it means that if you take big risks, you risk getting hurt bigtime. On one post at ARFCOM in the General Discussion forum, I found an example of the big risk/big hurt rule:

The protester, Julia Symons of Melbourne, was accidentally shot in the face while the shooter was aiming at a low-flying bird.

She staggered into the arms of two friends, saying "I've been shot, I've been shot". She was carried from the water with pellets still stuck in her face and one of her teeth shot out.

This happened in Australia. From the article, it seems that the protesters sneak into the water early in the morning before the hunters get there, and then do their best to spook the birds so that they don't land in the water. It's precisely at that moment - when a duck is slowing down to hit the water - that hunters take aim and shoot, as they are not moving as fast and are easier to hit. This sort of activity was bound to lead to this sooner or later. Thankfully the woman lived, and hopefully she has learned her lesson.

The protesters continuingly break the human safety laws by going into the water before 10am and very few of them understand the safety zone of a shotgun."

Perhaps hunting-protesters should have to attend a hunter's safety course before heading out for a long day of danger on the water, or maybe it's bad policy to interfere with Natural Selection. I don't know about you, but I don't go about my day trying my best to meet Darwin.

**Edit - The protesters don't bother with eye and ear protection, which is pretty stupid considering they are wading around amongst duck decoys in the water while hunters blast away at ducks with birdshot. That women is extremely fortunate.

Friday, March 18, 2011

A tragic murder in Bethesda, Maryland has residents on edge. This news video covers the now ramped up sales of pepper spray to the locals. I recommend the blue OC spray that the store owner is endorsing, as it is on my keychain right now, but I do think that the Spartan sword hanging on his wall makes for a more effective defense against violent murderers. I carry OC spray for dogs, as I have no interest in shooting someone's Cujo if I could instead send it running away.

The reason for the title of this post is because of the first comment to the video, which I quote:

Anon - "this news site is so typically Mont. Co. A bunch of true gutless wimps! pepper spray? I think I'll start walking around Bethesda late nights with something much more lethal than pepper spray. God help anyone who tries to rob me, or anyone who thinks they're going to arrest me for protecting myself. That goes twofold for any of my family members. I will kill any POS who threatens any of my family ON SITE!"

While I believe it's good that he or she is passionate about protecting their family, I caution folks on making public statements that they would kill someone, even if that someone was committing a crime. I also add that Anon has just admitted that they carry a weapon or other object, presumably a firearm, and presumably against the law, that is lethal. This is the sort of thing that gets otherwise good citizens in deep hot water. When they do wound or kill a dangerous scumbag in what would normally be considered a good shoot, some salty lawdog will have remembered a comment like this, and take the time to find out who made it.

Protecting yourself is good. Making useless and damning statements to the public on how you're a hardass is bad.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Armed self defense works even if you're not good at it. In this case, a store owner is assaulted by two armed men. When they jump off of him to attack someone else in the store, the store owner pulls a small concealed handgun from his waistband. This video is exactly why you carry your gun fully loaded with a round in the chamber; you can see that when he draws his gun, he tries twice to chamber a round, and then the magazine falls to the ground. The video skips forward a few seconds, and he has reinserted the magazine and then sucessfully chambers a round and starts firing. He doesn't even attempt to use his sights, but the bad guys don't notice; they're trying their hardest to flee!

When I was a kid, there was the always constant threat of all out nuclear war with Russia, which would have likely destroyed every living thing on the entire planet. I mean, Russia had something along the lines of 30,000 nuclear missiles, all of them pointed at the US, and that discounts their. . . .ahem. . .robust chemical and biological weapons programs, all of which were too, aimed at the free world.

To me, the threats that we face today pale in comparison. Not to downplay 9/11 or anything, as loosing thousands of Americans in a terrorist attack was definitely a defining time in this country, but for several decades people in the US went about their day knowing that if there was an attack, millions of people would die, and that is if everything didn't go as bad as we had been told.

Today I take a look at the news to find material to mock, and am treated with sensational headlines describing how some miscreant placed what could only be a plastic soda bomb on somebody's window sill, spraying high velocity shards of glass from a single window across ten whole feet of lawn, complete with breathtaking "RAW" footage of firefighters milling around their truck, and cops slowly walking through the woods with flashlights. There's also the breaking report of the DC GOP office getting its windows "shot out" (cracked, but still standing) by hard-core violent gangsters firing high velocity BBs from an air rifle. The audacity of these people. Oooh, and how can I forget the edge-of-your-seat breaking news story about shoppers in a mall in Roanoke loosing their shit over the sight of an old man walking the isles holding an umbrella, which they thought was an AK, or even an RPG picked up at a gunshow in Arizona for $38. It was raining that day, which is theoretically why a man would have on his person an umbrella; and the PEW PEW PEW sounds the man imagined coming out of the moist instrument were telepathically picked up by other shoppers and mistaken for actual automatic gunfire from a rifle. Lastly, the news is putting up a desperate attempt to scare the shit out of every American over the nuclear reactors in Japan with stories of "all hope is lost" and "DEATH CLOUDS!!!" DEATH CLOUDS will come and eat the brains of your children while they sleep peacefully in their beds dreaming childish stories of Chicken Little telling everybody that the sky is falling!

Be advised that DEATH CLOUDS are in no way related to DEATH BLOSSOMS (warning, language).

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Mossberg 500 Kaboom with picture. The actual reason for the Kaboom is not known for certain, but the consensus is that a 20 gauge shell was chambered first, followed by a misfire and the racking of a 12 gauge shell. There is also the speculation that a plastic wad got stuck in the barrel and the shot from the next load hit it, causing the Kaboom. Who knows?

ISLAMABAD — An American CIA contractor facing murder charges in Pakistan has been released after the payment of "blood money" to the relatives of the victims, local officials said Wednesday.

Raymond Allen Davis has been in jail since Jan. 27, seriously straining ties between Pakistan and the United States.

Good for him that he's been turned loose and will not die in that country. It's unfortunate that he spent a month and a half in prison in Pakistan because he had to shoot two robbers, and that the Pakistani media made him out to be the villain. Of course, Davis doesn't get a warm welcome from our media either; read that first sentence above again. Still don't see? How about this one:

Pakistani law allows murder suspects to be set free if they compensate the heirs of their victims.

This is a common tactic amongst the disingenuous hacks that make up 99% of our media, both the newspapers and TV news: calling the shootees who were killed due to their own violent actions the "victims," which makes the shooter the aggressor. And "Blood Money?" What happend to "settlement," like it is here when some coked up lesbian actor destroys some innocent person's life with the hood of her Escalade? Nice try fuckers.

I get that Pakistani people are going to be pissed regardless of what the facts are; they watch the local news just like we do, and it's apparent that word smithing and fact twisting in journalism is a global phenomenon, like a big bolus of hippie is injected into the frontal lobe of every journalism grad. The Pakistani government is between a rock and a hard ass, as even our Head of State publically called Davis a diplomat, which seals the deal, leaving the Pakistani government having to face their own angry people. Bad place to be and all. Overall it was worked out peacefully, thankfully, but I just wish the douchebags working in front of cameras here in the states would do something honest for once in their lives and call a spade a spade. How hard is that?

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A rather large shootout in a sleepy Virginia town leads to 2 cops killed, and 2 wounded. The killer was later shot dead by police, sparing the town the financial burden of convicting him and sentencing him to death. It's stories like this that remind us that cops have a dangerous job that can turn deadly in a moment.

Monday, March 14, 2011

The Obama administration has apparently decided to jump aboard the gun control train and see what kind of wreck they can make of it. I am surprised at this; I expected that they would light the torches around the gun control altar after President Obama's re-election is determined. Either way, I don't see how there can even be an agreement when the vast majority sees gun ownership as being a basic human right, and not a political gemstone that needs to be placed on a political party's ring.

There's some good stuff in there, like here where President Obama lashes out at Congress for slacking on their duties to the American people:

"Every single day, America is robbed of more futures. It has awful consequences for our society. And as a society, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to put a stop to it," he wrote.

Oh, wait, actually he was directing that statement at firearms, and not necessarily firearms used against Americans by evil people. Silly me. Here's a catch-all statement that can mean so many things as to be virtually useless:

"I'm willing to bet that responsible, law-abiding gun owners agree that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few -- dangerous criminals and fugitives, for example -- from getting their hands on a gun."

I would offer that I could agree with that statement as long as "dangerous criminals" is strictly defined as criminals that have committed the most serious of an act such as violent rape, murder, or attempted murder, and not someone who verbally distrusts the government and has faded Reagan stickers on their bumper; and I would also add that the mechanism for keeping these dangerous criminals from getting their hands on a gun is by placing them in prison forever, and not delaying millions of non-dangerous people from buying guns at Wal-Mart. I think we may have something there. Sadly, I don't believe that that's the conclusion that President Obama and his administration is shooting for:

Obama called for "sound and effective" steps to prevent lawbreakers from obtaining guns. A system of criminal background checks must be better implemented and made more efficient, he said.

Hmmmmm. Preventing violent criminals from ever seeing the light of day again would qualify as "sound and effective," no? I'm thinking his intent though is to delay the purchase of a Colt at Gander Mountain by five-time serial rapist murderers on parole to the tune of a week or so, and not finding a way to keep them behind bars.

"Most gun-control advocates know that most gun owners are responsible citizens. Most gun owners know that the word 'commonsense' isn't a code word for 'confiscation,'" he wrote.

He doesn't read gun blogs very much. This line here shows me that he doesn't have his finger on the pulse of gun owners these days. I would also add that congress has not made it apparent that confiscation is not on the top of their list, not even by a long shot. And in case you're wondering what type of people President Obama considers "dangerous criminals:"

"A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun," Obama wrote.

The Army rejects amputees, paraplegics, and people who sleepwalk as being unfit for Service, so they should be barred from buying a gun? Is that where you're heading? Sounds like it's going to be an epic train wreck.

Friday, March 11, 2011

As far as weapons and combat equipment go, US troops today are offered gear that has been thoroughly tested and tortured so that it will survive the day-to-day hell that they have to go through. For a good look at what is expected of this equipment, check out this thread (56k go somewhere else) of Marines going through the Jungle Warfare Training Course. I never got to go to that course, but I did go to some courses that really tested man and equipment, where if your stuff wasn't up to par, you would find out there because you would break it.

To give you one example, I was issued bunny boots at the Mountain Warfare Training Center in California, and snickered when they handed me those cartoonish looking things with no visible insulation. My feet always, always, always get cold in the winter time, and the day I arived as base camp the temperature was 20 degrees and dropping fast. I knew I was going to be miserable, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Those boots not only worked while dry, but when I fell through some ice while crossing a creek, and ended up nipple deep in water and mud, all I had to do to get my feet warm again was pour the water out and stuff my wet socked feet back in them. Simplicity ruled the day, and I didn't fail to notice that fifty year old rubber and wool boots worked better for me than anything I've ever bought from Rocky. I now have a pair of those boots sitting in my basement.

Going back to the Jungle Warfare Training Center pics linked above, imagine being soaked in mud and crawling through holes all day, and knowing that if your equipment breaks then you may fail the course, or if you're lucky just continue on with broken laces, watchband, sling, or whatever. The rifles that they're carrying are made of rubber, as Uncle Sam does not buy Colt rifles to beat up in training unless they are expected to be fired. Something I see often on gunny shows on the Outdoor channel or in gun rags is that a featured weapon will be dunked in water for a second or two and then fired, or covered in Mississippi mud in a tupperware container and then shot into the berm to somehow justify that the weapon is indeed reliable. There is the always present talk of the M16/M4 rifle not being able to take the talcum like sand of the Middle East, or that some new phaser-gun looking rifle from H und K standing up to the most demanding dirt North Carolina has to offer, when in fact it is much more deep than that. Here is a glimpse of the real conditions a battle rifle for the US Warfighter is subjected to for up to a year or more at a time:

But hey, its got a dust cover, right! Despite the rantings of naysayers, the M16/M4 platform has done pretty well to withstand the rigors of combat in conditions like that. You're not going to be able to duplicate those conditions in five minutes on the range either; years of fighting in all sorts of climates will tell you what works and what doesn't. The M16 may have had some teething problems when it first arrived in Vietnam, but from all I can tell they got that sorted out and it has gone on and done wonderful things.

Do you think your equipment would take abuse of this magnatude for a year or more?

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

It's a re-formulation of Reloder-15 that has been tested extensively to make it less affected by temperature, which sounds good to me. RL15 is one of my favorite powders for .308 Winchester, but I've always been put off by its habit of giving me different velocities in different temperatures, especially in AR type rifles where you can click off a dozen rounds or more very quickly which makes the chamber very hot. I believe this has given me inconsistency in the past, and it's nice to see powder companies like Hodgdon and Alliant addressing this.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I've had the Tuck-N-Go from Galco for about a year now, and don't wear it often. The main reason behind this is the fact that a pocket holster just makes perfect sense, but also because of some other things. The Tuck-N-Go is an Inside the Waistband (IWB) holster that you can tuck your shirt over top of, making it extremely concealable. The J-hook is minimalist, making it even more likely that it will go unnoticed.

First off, this holster is high quality, very well built, which is what you would expect from Galco. It's also good looking. The rough surface of the leather it is made from faces outboard to give some purchase for when you draw.

It's a tight fit at first, so you want to keep your heater holstered in it for a few days to loosen things up a bit, maybe even put a sandwich baggie over the gun to help the leather stretch. One of the features is a steel insert at the mouth of the holster to facilitate reholstering, so that when you smoke the tangos from the door of the Blackhawk using your quick draw, you can reholster with one hand while you attach your tactical operator retention lanyard with the other.

For those of you looking for a cantable holster, this ain't it. Drop it into your waistband, hook the J-hook under your belt, tuck in the shirt, and you're good to go. It works very fast if you're taking it out of the glove box or such and want to carry into a store. There's just not a lot of fuss with putting it on, but do know that you will be loosening your belt a notch or two to make up for its width:

Keep in mind that the leather wraps up and over the steel insert in the mouth, so the width of what you see here is not what goes inside the waistband. One of the problems I have with this holster though is that even the little bit of width that this holster has with the pictured Kel-Tec P3AT, you can see the bulge of the piece on your side:

It's not a big deal once you tuck your shirt in, but it's there. I don't know how in the world people carry in their waistband over their appendix; that has to be the most uncomfortable way to carry ever devised even if you can get over having a loaded weapon pointed at your satchel all day. The rough checkering of a Kel-Tec will chafe the soft bits of your jelly roll too, so wear a wife beater or another T-shirt under the one you intend to tuck over the gun or you'll be sorry.

So overall, I would rate the Tuck-N-Go as extremely high for concealability, and low for comfort. Drawing from this holster is about as slow as it can get even if you don't tuck a shirt in over top of it, as it sits so low to your belt line that you can't get a firing grip on it. Trying to do this in a hurry can make you drop the gun. Once you tuck a shirt in on top of it, the draw time gets even worse, but remember that this is supposed to be a "deep concealment" holster to enable you to carry in places where you otherwise would not. Speed of the draw is not what was intended with this concept, for sure. I see this holster as being one of rare necessity, where you want to carry but can't, and need some sort of option.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Man, it's all out warfare there now. The Libyan government is shelling and dropping bombs on rebels, which is an indicator that they could care less about collateral damage or loss of innocent life. At least when government forces are shooting individual people with precision rifle fire, they are making an attempt at stopping the revolt with as little bloodshed as possible, but we are definitely not seeing that here.

It amazes me that these rebel fighters started out basically throwing rocks, and then armed themselves enough to take down military bases and get heavy weapons to knock down aircraft and destroy tanks. That's motivation. I can't say I don't blame them for wanting to out Qaddafi and his entourage of women bodyguards. Forty some years of that mess is enough for anyone.

Friday, March 4, 2011

The other night when my kid was sick and the power was out, I dutifully passed out flashlights to all my youngins because - if you can believe it - this was the first power outage that they had ever experienced, and they didn't know how to react. We didn't have a whole lot of candles in the house, so I brought out some lights for the kids to play with and we made some shadow puppets.

Back in my day, a power outage was a relatively normal thing, and we would play board games and otherwise find alternate means of family entertainment that didn't include the TV. It's shameful, but my kids seem lost without that daggone TV. It also puts into perspective all the folks in the news paper that bitch to the power company when the lights go down for a few hours, as if they could magically control falling trees and thunderstorms.

As for the flashlights, I only gave LED lights to my kids as I didn't want them sleeping with a device that would burn them. My LED light collection has not exceeded my incandescent light collection, so one child got the Streamlight TLR-1 off my 1911. The runtime on these lights last only an hour or two, or so I thought, but the next afternoon when I got home from work my wife told me that when she picked the lights up out of the kids beds in the morning, they were all still working. Coooool.

It's comforting knowing that they won't just up and die after a short while (the flashlights; not my kids!) and will continue to put out some usable light. My old Surefire incandescents would lose power suddenly, and you had to have either a spare battery, a spare light, or a lighter or you were hosed. New flashlight technology is good stuff, and I'm really appreciating the newer companies like Fenix that offer high performance and quality at a lesser price.

The scumbag who shot and killed two US Airman in Germany was using an FN pistol in 9mm, which jammed during the attack. Because the pistol jammed, the scumbag took off and was quickly captured by other US Airman, who hopefully got to beat the ever-livin shit out of the guy.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

"The helmet is made of a state-of-the-art plastic, but don’t let that fool you. It has stopped zero-degree rifle bullets at point-blank range, and has stopped 7.62mm rounds, as well.

“We had hoped for a 35 percent improvement over the [Advanced Combat Helmet] in terms of ballistic protection and it’s way better than that,” said Col. William Cole, project manager of Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment."

That's really good news if this helmet does produce that kind of performance. I know Marines were way more motivated to go trolling for trouble in Iraq while wearing Small Arm Protective Inserts - or SAPI for short - plates in their Kevlar vests, as it was the first time in US history that our forces had armor that would stop rifle bullets. They would still penetrate Kevlar helmets though, but just knowing that several rounds could hit you square in the chest and you would probably survive was big news in small arms warfare.

The SAPI plates are heavy as hell though; I had serious trouble with them riding around in vehicles, as the weight of 45 lbs. of armor bearing down on your spine with every bump in the road caused excruciating pain, and I had to endure it for sometimes 12 hours at a time. If this plastic helmet material can be used in body armor too, considering that it's lighter, than that would be a tremendous improvement.

Don't think though that lighter armor would mean our Warfighters would end up carrying less weight; there are lots of programs out there that would gladly put extra pounds on the backs of our troops.

I've noted the Guardian Angels bravery before, and also noted that it's shameful that they do not have the proper means of protecting themselves and others due to political decree. Honestly though, good people never cease to amaze me.

**Edit to add, from comments:

Anon - " Have we completely lost the balls to help people in the need?"

It seems that most folks in DC have, but then again this post is about a group of people who have determined to protect others from this sort of violence, and they have to do it with bare hands.

Now picture you and a buddy standing guard on the Metro one night with nothing more than your hands as protection. Do you think you could stop fifteen criminals from beating one of your fellow citizens to death? There are small portable tools these days that can be readily carried that would certainly turn the tables on these criminals.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I hear Firefighters all the time talk about how they could find good use for flying spy cameras that are disguised as hummingbirds to keep an eye on things without being seen by the fire. Sure, the po-po probably could find use for them too, but you just know they wouldn't, as it would be unethical or something, unless it's for chemical leaks which is totally ethical. Rest assured that a flying/hovering spy camera would never ever be used for spying.

Like the "guy on the couch" from Half Baked, I think my squatter has worn out his welcome, so to speak, if ever he was welcome.

My family has been in a perpetual state of sickness of one kind or the other for basically the entire winter. I missed out on catching most of it until recently, and to the day that I kicked one "flu-like bug" as the doctor described it, I ended up with another. It was repayment from CTone-the-Youngest, as I had given my sickness to him from the start; and when a baby vomits several times across your chest, you will receive his divine gift whether you want it or not.

Good thing it's a 24 hour bug.

So I get home from work yesterday to find CTone-the-Middle-Child with this 24 hour bug, and he's tossing up everything he's got at a rate of about once every ten minutes until he had nothing left to give. Just when I was able to comfort him, as dinner was just getting started, the power went out.

Puking toddlers in the dark. Think of that one for a minute.

Now I understand how the Plague spread so rapidly almost seven hundred years ago; handling sickness in low light really sucks. Thankfully our baby wipe stockpile has been well attended to, or I wouldn't have made the night. The power came back on at 2300, but by four hours later, I could feel the sickness rising in my guts. The only way last night would have sucked more is if a giant meteor crashed through the ceiling and smashed both of my legs.

I guess my immune system has to earn its pay. Life is difficult enough as it is to be sick for weeks and months on end, and with time at such a premium these days I need to be at my best.